Joides Resolution does it again This ship is one of the unsung heroes of the Earth Sciences, drillin

Joides Resolution does it againThis ship is one of the unsung heroes of the Earth Sciences, drilling cores from the ocean basins all over the world year in year out on behalf of the international scientific group known as the International Ocean drilling Programme, first started during the 1950’s to deepen international scientific cooperation (during the peak of the cold war) while gleaning knowledge about our planet and its history. They helped prove plate tectonics, and have provided date to resolve many scientific mysteries over the years. Its latest cruise off the coast off Western Australia from Freemantle to Darwin turned up an unexpected surprise in the shape of a sedimentary stack that provided the longest complete record of the Red Continent’s climate over the last 50 million years (some 45 million more than hoped for). Analysis of the sediment cores is ongoing, but already several major surprises have turned up.The main one is that the deserts that fill the continent are the youngest on the planet at a mere 1.5 million years old. Revealed by the growing amount of windblown particles in the marine sediments, it complements the other data in the same sediments proving that Australia’s monsoons are much older than thought. By combining the dust and analysing the pollen it contains to reconstruct the past environment with data from plankton shells that reveal oceanic chemistry, a much better resolved picture is going to emerge in the next months.LozDear Readers, Most of our posts are not reaching your news feed due to fb’s filtering system. If you wish to enjoy our posts more often, use the following for information on how to go about it: http://tmblr.co/Zyv2Js1VWMUJ0.Image credit: Arito Sakaguchi & IODP/TAMUhttp://bit.ly/1Gpg8Ouhttp://joidesresolution.org/blog -- source link

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